On #Che93, here's a short note I wrote as a foreword for a book with Che's writings, drawing on Eduardo Galeano to understand why he & the Cuban revolution continues to be admired nearly a century later. To this, in the following tweets, I'll add more from Galeano on #CheGuevara
Of Che's remarkable decision to leave Cuba to join Bolivia's revolutionary movement where he was killed, Galeano wrote: "this is the unique case of a man abandoning a revolution already made by him and a handful of comrades, to throw himself into the launching of another." #Che93
Why did Che risk his life in Bolivia's revolution rather than enjoy the fruits of Cuba's revolution? Galeano answers: "the word solidarity offers the only key to understanding (Che), although it doesn’t appear in the vocabulary" of journalists #Che93#CheGuevara
"He didn’t live for the victory but for the struggle, the ever-necessary, never-ending struggle against indignity & hunger. He didn’t even allow himself the privilege of looking back at the beautiful fire rising from the bridges he had burned behind him." Galeano's epitaph #Che93
गलीयानो के शब्दों में चे ग्वेरा "जीत के लिए नहीं, संघर्ष के लिए जीते थे, भूख और अपमान के खिलाफ हमेशा-जरूरी, कभी-न-खत्म-होने-वाला संघर्ष..." चे जैसे आंदोलनजीवी की जरूरत भारत में भी तो है? मोदी उन्हें गाली दें तो क्या? #Che93#CheGuevara
चे बोलिविया में क्रांति रचने की कोशिश वहां के जंगलों में शहीद हुए. गलीयानो लिखते हैं: "चे में हम एक अनोखा उदाहरण पाते हैं एक ऐसे आदमी का जो अपने और चंद साथियों द्वारा रचे क्रांति को त्याग, एक नई क्रांति की लड़ाई में खुद को झोंक देता है". #Che93
तमाम बाजारीकरण के बावजूद आज भी #Che93 शासकों की नजर में खतरनाक क्यों हैं? "शायद इसलिए कि जिस दुनिया में शब्द और कर्म इतना कम मिलते हैं कि राह चलते मुलाकात हो जाए तो एक दूसरे को पहचान ही नहीं पाते, उसी में चे जो सोचते थे उसी को कहते थे, और जो कहते थे उसी को करते थे" (गलीयानो)
Clip from the @kunalkamra88 episode where I said that what Galeano said of Che probably applies to the Left at its best, and accounts for the Left outliving so many hopeful obituaries. #Che93#CheGuevara
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I've had the most wonderful Holi celebrations on JNU campus & homes of friends in Allahabad, Patna. Likewise, I've faced sexual harassment on Holi, on streets everywhere. Lesson: Holi itself can be fun, beautiful. But to make sure Holi is fun for women, there's work for us
We need to acknowledge that Holi is widely used as a licence for sexual harassment. Only if we acknowledge it can we resist it. It's the sexual harassers who give Holi a bad name. Not the women who speak of their experiences of harassment. +
Here's an analogy: it's the priests who abuse children who give the Catholic Church a bad name, not the victims who speak up. Those who deny this happens widely, those who cover it up, are complicit. Likewise for Holi.
Recently heard the podcast by @sikhyaent on Saravana Bhavan founder P Rajagopal, who stalked the young daughter of an employee & had her husband killed. Observations: the podcast's title ('Dosa King') glorifies PR, the script trivialises his crime, calling it a mere "scandal"
It refers to the whole stalking and murder episode as something that led to Rajagopal's "fall" - i.e a story of crime against a woman is turned into a story about the impact of the said crime on its perpetrator, not its victim.
It refers to the stalking victim as a fit antagonist for the protagonist Rajagopal, as Rajagopal's nemesis. But the point is, she set out to be neither. She didn't make him part of her life story. He forcibly, violently disrupted her life.
How can I have anything but contempt for a CJI who asks a man who violently, repeatedly raped a minor girl, pushed her to attempt suicide, if he will marry his victim. How can any girl or woman in India be safe with CJIs like Gogoi & Bobde? #threadbit.ly/3b3yRI5
The accused stalked a Std 9th girl, entered the house in her family's absence, tied up, gagged & raped her. Then raped her repeatedly with threats of acid attacks, burning alive, killing her brother. The victim attempted suicide, then the mother got to know of the rape
At the police station, the mother was pressured by the accused's mother to sign a statement saying the accused wd marry the victim. This kind of 'compromise' is, by the way, a very common occurrence in police stations & even courts all over India bit.ly/3uLGRpk
Please read the thread by @AudreyTruschke, and this one by me. The verdict that convicted Mahmood Farooqui of rape was a landmark one like the #PriyaRamani one of yesterday. The Feeble No verdict that overturned it is an affront to our legal system.
I had in mind the Farooqui case when I wrote yesterday about "campaigns (across political aisles) claiming that the amendments to India’s sexual violence laws in 2013 are “draconian” when applied to privileged men." indianexpress.com/article/opinio…
Remember, men's reputations survive even rape convictions. They survive even when the man has argued in trial court that he did not touch the woman, to turn around & be acquitted in the HC on the basis that he assumed she consented since her No was too feeble.
Golwalkar in his own words - from Bunch of Thoughts, the RSS manifesto. @MinOfCultureGoI these are the ideas you're celebrating. @AmbLindnerIndia these are what you bowed to in Nagpur. These are the views which underpin Modi Govt policy.
For Golwalkar, Hindu = national, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Dalit, OBC, feminist, Tamil, Kannada, Manipuri etc = communal, separatist.
Golwalkar celebrated Islamophobic bigotry, decried calls for Hindu-Muslim unity
Which thoughts are those, @MinOfCultureGoI? The one where he said the Nazi purge of Jews was something India "should learn and profit from"? Or - there's more, see thread.
Golwalkar: Muslims, Christians "must lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges —not even citizen’s rights." These his profound thoughts @MinOfCultureGoI?
Read Golwalkar's "Bunch of Thoughts" whom @MinOfCultureGoI is celebrating today. He said Sikh, Buddhist, Tamil, Dravidian, Dalit, OBC, feminist identities and causes were all anti national, divisive. He celebrated Islamophobic bigotry as national sentiment.